Dear Professor Bradshaw

Paracatu on a "King's row of death" under Kinross Gold Corporation (letter to Canadian Professor B. Bradshaw, by Sergio U. Dani)

Dear Professor Bradshaw,

thank you for your attention. Your student has approached me with a wrong question, as far as I understand the whole situation. You have further confirmed this point when you asked me to offer my time and thoughts "with respect to the question of Kinross' performance as a responsible mine operator in Paracatu".

There is no such thing as "Kinross as a responsible mine operator". Kinross is a criminal company which provides "facilitation payments" to Brazilian authorities to "facilitate" the environmental destruction and a true genocide it is causing in Paracatu. Kinross' continuing performance in Paracatu is bound to cause the contamination of air, soil and water with estimated one million tons of arsenic, the "King of poisons". It is thus legitimate to state that Paracatu stays on a "King's row of death" under Kinross Gold Corporation.

Kinross' decision to proceed with the expansion of the Paracatu mine after being alerted that this decision signifies contaminating the region and killing thousands of people is a proof that Kinross is up to mischief. In additon to providing "facilitation payments" to Brazilian authorities, Kinross also tells lies to the largely illiterate  or semi-illiterate people of Paracatu in order to hide this unbelievable abuse.

As to our responsibilities as scientists, I would like to quote an eminent Brazilian scientist who happened to be   reared in England, where he did a Nobel-Prize winning work, Sir Peter Brian Medawar: "The inference we can draw from an analytical study of the differences between ourselves and other animals is surely this: that the bells which toll for mankind are - most of them, anyway - like the bells on Alpine cattle; they are attached to our own necks, and it must be our fault if they do not make a cheerful and harmonious sound."

Yours Sincerely,
Sergio Dani